THOUGHT: Self Care Ain't Just Aesthetic
Above are three products I would just about give an appendage for. And I'll leave that as-is because I'm only slightly exaggerating.
I mention these, mostly just because they were the last things that came to mind (by this, I mean, literally, I thought of them) as I finished up an entry in my 5-year memory book this morning.
I was writing, and an everyday word suddenly began to register to me as extremely peculiar.
The word is "conditioning."
Conditioning
: the process of training to become physically fit by a regimen of exercise, diet, and rest; also : the resulting state of physical fitness
: a simple form of learning involving the formation, strengthening, or weakening of an association between a stimulus and a response
For the most part, I think we've got the first definition down.
We run, and yoga, and soft-rod, and twist-set, and vegan, and slow-food, and coconut and turmeric our entire lives down. And I'm not judging us, because lord knows the world is hard, and even if it wasn't we deserve.
But I'm not so certain when it comes to the second definition.
I wonder:
If we are operating efficiently, or blinded and encumbered by complication?
When considering a simple form of learning involving the formation, strengthening, or weakening of an association between a stimulus and a response, I wonder.
I wonder:
Are we forming, strengthening or weakening our own systems?
Are we aware of which systems belong to us? Who is us?
Are we aware of our own genuine responses versus those created by external superficial stimuli?
I wonder:
What moves us?
When do we respond?
Why?
I wonder what we will do with the consequences of our own (in)action?
I may not have the actions to these questions, but I trust that you do, for you.
At least, I trust you will.
Here's the full journal entry in case you were wondering:
“We can do it. But it takes conditioning. Care. Effort on our own part. Deference to our own inherent will. And the time ... just so you know ... is always now.”